1859 Sept | Oct 2018

artist in residence
Murals © The Artback
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP “The Early Trains of Estacada,” designed by John Freese, was originally painted with house paint in 1995 and repainted in 2015. Artists Kolieha Bush, left, and
Jenny Joyce stand in front of 2003 mural “The Arts in Estacada,” designed by Joe Cotter. 2002’s “Tree of Life,” designed by Kolieha Bush, Reeva Wortel and Emily Hyde.
It was important to her and the other artists that they be
compensated for their work. Joyce, who now lives in Portland
and grew up with a love of art, has worked as a professional
artist for her entire career.
“People think art is fun and they shouldn’t have to pay for
it,” said Joyce, who shows her oil and canvas landscapes and
abstracts in a couple Portland galleries. “There’s a lot of delusions
about life as an artist. It’s important to pay us.” She credits the
small stipend the artists receive to the group’s survival over the
last twenty-four years.
The artists, a core group of ten with new additions each
year, named themselves Artback, a play on “outback,” since
they initially saw themselves as outliers. The murals have since
made a great impact on the former logging and rail town and
its residents not only embrace them, but feel a sense of pride
over them.
The Artback Artists paint their mural the last weekend in
July, which used to coincide with an event called Timberfest.
The mural painting soon became its own event, and a few years
in, someone in town decided the artists should have music
to paint to. A band appeared, Bush recalled. The festivities
naturally developed into the Estacada Celebration, a homegrown
arts and music festival. The city bought a semi-truck
stage and made the festival official in 2000.
“The first year the band was playing kind of for us,” said
Bush, a resident of nearby Eagle Creek who works in a variety
of media, including papier mâché and bronze and shows her
work in downtown’s artist-run Spiral Gallery and at the Oregon
Country Fair. She credits the fair’s creative spirit as an influence
on her free-spirited art.
This year’s mural, one of the co-op’s most intricate designs,
depicted the annual summer celebration. The mural, co-led
by Bush and calligraphy and watercolorist Nolene Triska, was
inspired by a postcard Triska made of the celebration.
The first mural, “Fishing the Clackamas,” was completed in a
day with house paint. The artists now use better-quality mural
paint and a varnish with fixative to preserve the murals from
weather and sun damage. The process now takes several days,
but the murals should last at least twenty years. Unique to the
group is its focus on the restoration of old murals.
“A town that’s full of faded murals is really sad,” Joyce said. “As
we redo them, I think they’ve gotten better. I’m a better artist
now than I was thirty years ago and to bring it back to life is
really fun. I love that.”
56 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018